In my first season at a new school and I inherited these three guards. They are all pretty equal in rating value and have the same IQs on offense and defense.

Is there anything you guys see that tells you who starts? Or who should play less than the others? I already have a stud PG. These three players will be subbing at PG/SG and one of them will start at SG.

Bob: ath 23 spd 75 def 17 per 49 bh 59 ps 60

Jim: ath 18 spd 71 def 14 per 74 bh 53 ps 49

Fred: ath 17 spd 64 def 10 per 51 bh 71 ps 40

Well, they are all gonna give up some points.  Those sub 20's in ATH and DEF are gonna cost you.   Ideally, you want those numbers to be up over 60.   

If those are your options, I'd go with Jim.  He should be a pretty good scorer.  The 70+ SPD, PER combo is nice.

EDIT:  Just checked you run a Zone.     Guys like Jim fit in pretty well in Zone if you can find some schlub with an 80 ATH-80 DEF and no offensive skills.   They are out there, you can sign them usually pretty cheap.

If found these guys on my D3 list in Tark.   None are great but they off set your offensive minded guy pretty well.    I know it's to late for you now but it's a strategy to consider....

Pos	Name	A	SPD	REB	DE	BLK	LP	PE	BH	P	WE	ST	DU	TOT
PG	Gary Walden	64	26	25	56	9	16	29	27	10	61	68	43	434
SF	Robert Gerrard	63	27	13	66	10	14	43	21	13	25	69	46	410
SG	William Keller	55	30	6	58	1	47	15	12	10	69	65	58	426

Alright, so another question on best utilizing these players. All three inherited... not the type of players I'd recruit because they don't defend jack. Player "Joe" is more athletic than the other two. How much value do y'all place in his athleticism when you lose in BH and P?

Joe: ath 47 spd 54 def 21 per 68 bh 41 ps 33

Bob: ath 23 spd 75 def 17 per 50 bh 59 ps 60

Fred: ath 18 spd 64 def 10 per 54 bh 72 ps 41

In a SF, I'd value ATH at the expense of BH and P. But if we're talking guards and you lose any ATH gains with lower SPD?  meh. I'll take the speed and ball skills. JMO

Thanks tarvolon. These players are all underclassmen and I'm trying to get a feel for lineups in future seasons too. I think I'll keep scrambling them around... it just sucks that I've got 4 "meh" players all equally flawed to choose from. Ha.

You can work with a couple meh players that are equally flawed, but your best bet might be to pick out your favorites and then cut one or two of the others. If they were upperclassmen, they'd be gone soon enough anyways, but you don't want to carry four of these guys for another 2-3 seasons.

I actually did have a pretty good year last year in Iba with three meh players that I inherited as sophomores, but there are a couple things I think really contributed to that: 

1. None of them had to start. I recruited over them and let the freshmen (now seniors, juniors last year) run wild. 

2. They were meh in very different ways. One of them had 23 defense but was around 70 in SPD, PER, BH, and P. One of them couldn't shoot, dribble, or pass worth a damn but was 65 DEF. 

If they're meh in the same ways (and they do all look like low D, potentially good shooting/BH?), they're redundant. But either way, you want to recruit over them asap. As you well know. 

Awesome advice. They are actually 3 juniors and 1 sophomore. I hadn't thought of cutting anyone... but it's a genius idea. I''m going to definitely cut one of the Jrs at the end of the season now. (And maybe another one of the Jrs or the Soph too.) Thank you for the advice! I didn't think of it.

If you haven't done cutting before, something to keep in mind: 

you do get an extra scholarship to fill, but you do NOT get extra scholarship money. So it's only worthwhile to cut a rising senior if you're pretty confident you'll be able to fill that spot without extra money. A rising junior, however, can be beneficial to cut, because if you have to take a walk-on, the walk-on will leave next year, whereas the junior would not leave for two years. 

That said, I've cut rising seniors before. If you're somewhat confident that you can sign someone else and you know they won't get much playing time anyways, it's still worthwhile. Also worth noting here that the deadline for cuts is the signing deadllne, so you can get a little bit of a feeling for how recruiting is going before making the call if you want to. 

If you haven't done cutting before, something to keep in mind: 

you do get an extra scholarship to fill, but you do NOT get extra scholarship money. So it's only worthwhile to cut a rising senior if you're pretty confident you'll be able to fill that spot without extra money. A rising junior, however, can be beneficial to cut, because if you have to take a walk-on, the walk-on will leave next year, whereas the junior would not leave for two years. 

That said, I've cut rising seniors before. If you're somewhat confident that you can sign someone else and you know they won't get much playing time anyways, it's still worthwhile. Also worth noting here that the deadline for cuts is the signing deadllne, so you can get a little bit of a feeling for how recruiting is going before making the call if you want to. 

If you haven't done cutting before, something to keep in mind: 

you do get an extra scholarship to fill, but you do NOT get extra scholarship money. So it's only worthwhile to cut a rising senior if you're pretty confident you'll be able to fill that spot without extra money. A rising junior, however, can be beneficial to cut, because if you have to take a walk-on, the walk-on will leave next year, whereas the junior would not leave for two years. 

That said, I've cut rising seniors before. If you're somewhat confident that you can sign someone else and you know they won't get much playing time anyways, it's still worthwhile. Also worth noting here that the deadline for cuts is the signing deadllne, so you can get a little bit of a feeling for how recruiting is going before making the call if you want to.